[July 28, 2011] Amazon signs streaming-movie deal with NBCUniversal Tweet SAN JOSE, Calif, Jul 28, 2011 (San Jose Mercury News - McClatchy-Tribune News Service via COMTEX) -- Amazon.com Inc. continued its quest to challenge Netflix Inc. in streaming video offerings by signing a deal with NBCUniversal for rights to Universal Pictures movies, the company announced Thursday. The deal gives Amazon Prime customers instant access to movies such as "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," "Being John Malkovich" and "Billy Elliott." Los Gatos, Calif.-based Netflix earlier this month announced a multiyear renewal of their deal with NBCUniversal, which allows them to stream television shows from NBC and its cable affiliates, as well as Universal Pictures movies. Amazon's news release did not mention access to any NBC-owned TV shows, and it highlighted some of the same movies mentioned in Netflix's news release earlier this month. Amazon also signed a deal this month with CBS to stream 2,000 episodes of that company's television shows, including full seasons of some shows. The Seattle-based company says the deals will allow it to offer 9,000 movies and TV shows for online streaming at no extra charge to Amazon Prime customers; they also offer 90,000 movies and TV shows for purchase or rent. Netflix currently offers 20,000 TV shows and movies on its online instant-streaming service. "This notches up the competitive bar," Colin Sebastian, an analyst at Robert W. Baird in San Francisco, told Bloomberg News in an interview. "Amazon is incrementally doing these deals with the content providers, and over time we think they will have a compelling alternative to Netflix." The Amazon Prime service offers free shipping from the company's core retail business for a $79 annual fee, along with access to the streaming service. This month, Netflix announced that it would sever its subscriptions for DVD-by-mail and instant streaming, with rates for each starting at $7.99 a month. Netflix had been offering both services in one package for as little as $9.99 a month. ___ (c) 2011, San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.). Visit MercuryNews.com, the World Wide Web site of the Mercury News, at http://www.mercurynews.com. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]